My Experience With Hardship Program For Sears Citi Card

I had a Sears Citi Card for almost ten years.  I always had a love / hate relationship with Citi, because I would pay off the card, and then they would send me a new one right before Christmas, and boom I would be right back where I started.

When my health insurance premiums went up, I knew things were going to get bad.  When the transmission of my truck went, I knew things were going to get really bad.  On my due date, I called Citi and explained to them I would be unable to make a payment.

They didn't care.

The next month, I called back on my due date.  I think the minimum payment was something like $235.  I told them there was no way I would be able to afford this, and after a bit of conversing I ended up paying them what I could afford $100.

They didn't seem to be understanding that I was having financial hardship, and if I couldn't pay my monthly minimum of $80, there was no way in hell I would be able to make a $235 payment.

The next month, I had no money at all for them.  They still wanted something like $300.  The due date passed, and I started getting a couple letters in the mail from Citi Bank.  They didn't want me to lose my charging privileges (which was useless, since the late payment fees and interest took me above my credit limit) and they wanted to help me.  They gave me a special 1800 number to call.

I wasn't expecting much, honestly.


Everyone I spoke to was extremely friendly.  They saw that I had been a customer for ten years, and up until the last four months I had zero late payments.  I explained all of my problems, and told them there was no way I could make such a large payment.  They asked about my future, and I was honest with them, and told them I had to support a family of four and my hours at work were being reduced.

It took about an hour on the phone, but Citibank did something amazing for me.   They gave me 0% interest, and $50 a month payments for five years.  I was previously paying $80+ a month with 24% interest.  The only stipulation was that they had to close the account.  I was fine with that.  That would prevent me from getting back in trouble.

I felt like I had finally won a victory and was going to make a big change in my credit scenario.  Then I realized that the four months of late fees and the four months of interest I was paying  was going to take nearly six months to pay off and start seeing progress.